STRONGMAN AND ARM WRESTLING COACH & PERSONAL TRAINER

Dan would tell you he was the typical fat kid at school, (despite being a very active child) and was picked on a lot. So for his 12th birthday he asked for a weights bench and barbell set, and it was from here that his new found confidence and love of weight lifting began. Around the same time, Dan took an interest in arm wrestling and remained unbeaten amongst his classmates during his teens. He did all the things an 18 yr old does (drank, partied, had fun) but continued lifting and arm wrestling (in various pubs and clubs) throughout college where he studied Sports Science.

In 2001 Dan suffered a herniated disc in his lower back and the 14 month wait for an operation saw a lean 15 stone Dan turn into (in his own words) “a fat, 18 stone, depressed, border-line alcoholic.” A photo taken sometime later was the reality check required for Dan to regain control of his life, drop weight and get stronger.

At this point Dan decided to push himself and looked to enter some arm wrestling competitions. He came across an event in 2006 called ArmWars held at the SENI combat show in London, but it is pro format and he was not eligible to enter. However, there was a stand with an arm wrestling table nearby and some guys from a local club, so Dan got involved and was invited to train with their team:

“I travelled to the club where I got my first experience of why size counts for nothing in the sport of arm wrestling, losing to a guy a good 5 stone lighter than I was. This gave me the fire to keep going back. Within 8 months I went back to the SENI combat show to take 2nd place at the British Novice Championships. It wasn’t long before I started competing in the open class and shortly after that was invited to compete in the ArmWars series.”

“On 2 occasions I travelled with the British team to the World Arm Wrestling Championships – Italy, 2009 and America, 2010. It was truly an honour to represent my country against the best in the world.”

​Dan then represented Britain on the ArmWars professional circuit with wins and losses against national champions from Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Spain, which have been shown on Eurosport and Sky Sports.

Dan is also a referee for the British Arm wrestling Federation and ArmWars, and was the head referee at the WAL European championship round and refereed for a British championship match at Europe’s Strongest Man 2017.

Strongman has always been a love of Dan’s, having watched it on television from a very young age and since retiring from the arm wrestling table in 2016 due to the injury he picked up in 2014, he transitioned to competing in Strongman with his first competition in August. Since then he has competed 4 more times with great success.

“It is because of this quick success and the years of training for strength that I am being approached to coach people for strongman competitions at every level, from first timers and novices up to world championships.

I have two approaches, the first is off-season programming where we address any weaknesses as well as practice events. Then we have the comp prep, where I program gym and events training specifically for the competition coming up so that no stone is left unturned and all I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed.”

Experience

Arm wrestling

British Armwrestling National championships

2009, Right and left hand silver medals under 90kg

2010, Right hand bronze medal under 90kg

2012, Right hand silver medal under 100kg

2013, Right hand silver medal, left hand bronze medal under 110kg

Coached members of my arm wrestling team to national championship medals and world level competition